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LET LOVE BE SINCERE

Friday, October 31, 2014

7 Quick takes. With a little sass and a little stand up from my brother in law to end it!

Happy Halloween! The Wilkerson boys will be trick-or-treating as homemade cars. I'm not gonna lie, as you may know I am NOT a crafter/decorator/etc... It's just not in my blood. But, this year I got some inspiration, some baby wipe/baby diaper boxes and a roll of colored duct tape, then I made me some costumes. We went to our little downtown Redford Halloween party (which was kind of a bust to be honest, way too much standing around for our little guys) and a LOT of people told us the costumes were awesome. I felt real good about that.

You guys. This pope stuff. I swear. So much I could say, but I'm gonna say this. People are genuinely surprised when they are finding out what the Church actually teaches. While this could be total annoying (and frankly, kind of is) I like framing it as an opportunity to share with people. Because if people are this surprised, it's because we have been doing a crud job of teaching. And the good news is, those of us who are teachers have an awesome oppurtunity to teach. I can't tell you how many non-Catholics have been asking me Catholic questions ever since Pope Francis became pope. And that, my friends, ain't nothin' but awesome.

Sorry, one more thing about Pope Francis. Isn't it crazy how irresponsible media is? I mean, I know we all know this, but it's still stunning sometimes. Because like, really legit news organizations are just flat out lying about the Catholic Church. Not being misleading, but lying (spoiler: we've always taught, in modern times, evolution is compatible with our faith). It's crazy to me, because I don't know a lot of things well, but I know Catholicism pretty darn well, so I am very aware when media is lying about my Church. It really has given me a pause as I think of the kazillion other things I probably take as truth, just because I don't know any better. SCARY right?

Do you guys watch the show 'The Profit'? No? Okay, lemme give you a brief synopsis. This guy, who's name I don't know, comes into companies that are in dire straights and invests in them if they clean up their businesses. Anyway, this week, he tried to help out a family of crazy financially irresponsible people. Their business was broke, in debt, and yet they had a boat and drove BMWs. It was fascinating watching it, because they REALLY couldn't connect the problem. The investor ended up walking because he felt they were being dishonest about their debt/spending/etc... but the thing is my heart really went out to them. I don't think they were trying to be dishonest. I really think they couldn't connect their spending to the fact that they were broke. It really resonated with me because I remember being there. I remember being flat broke, avoiding phone calls from creditors who called all.the.time. I remember having constant knots in my stomach about my finances, losing sleep, paying the bill that was 3 months late, because once it went to 4 months, it could mean serious trouble. At the same time, I drove a new car, went out to eat, smoked cigarettes and had at least a few 'bar nights' a month. And I didn't connect the two. Mr. Ramsey talks all the time about debt being 80% behavioral and 20 % about money. He is so right.

So, my sisters (with born children) all live out of state. That really sucks for me. My kids have like 23 first cousins they rarely see. I can't tell you how much this bums me out. But guess what? Tonight, my sister and her five children are in town...SO WE GET TO GO TRICK OR TREATING WITH THEM! Wanna see the last time I went trick-or-treating with them?!?!

That was six or seven years ago and 9 kids ago. I was single and hating it, but loving my nieces and nephews. Tonight should be great.

My brother in law is a stand up comedian and he is performing in Michigan this weekend?!?! WHAT?!?!?! How awesome is that? Wanna come? It's $12 and lots of fun. Lemme know if you want to see him, but watch this to see how truly funny he is...